I personally will not be addressing High Magick for a number of reasons. I am sure I will refer to some of them later. For now I will just say that in my opinion, there is hardly ever a need for high Magick unless it's defensive, (even then, I am doubtful).
Ordinary practical Magick should suit almost everybody's needs. Sometimes it doesn't work. This would usually be when you are interfering with a bigger plan.
I like to look at Magick like a wind that we blow on a paper boat on water, to send it in the direction we want. You wouldn't want to use High Magick to blow a paper boat would you? Would you use a nuclear power plant to toast a marshmallow?
Also most Magick is not permanent, but only a tool to create the right conditions for success. (sometimes it IS permanent. A curse CAN last as long as a grudge).
I think that Practical, (low, folk) Magick, like real intuition is our natural Heaven granted sovereign right, and we have been conditioned from birth to weaken and relinquish it. Even now, when I pick up the Tarot, I flinch with the memories of all my conditioning. Because my relationship with my creator is and has always been intimate and intense, I am always sensitive to not disrupt it. This, above all else is what steers me magically and ethically.
I was about 16 the first time I consciously practiced "Magick". (There was an odd thing when I was 4 but I won't get into it here). Before that time my magick was mostly created through prayer. I had a rugged rugged time with churches when I was young, indeed was a Catholic, Protestant and Episcopalian, all before age 11.
I digress.
There was a man that I was very taken with at at age sixteen. Although I was persuasive, the man in question was at the very least, ambivalent at our union and had ended any romantic future between us.
He had dropped me off at a bus station and given me a dime to use a payphone, when I reached my destination. Since I had my own dime, I kept the one he gave me.
When I got home, I picked some sweet smelling plants, (I have no idea which now, but they were wild, we were not green thumbs) and put them in a small silver bowl that was used for candy. I placed the bowl of plant stuff next to my telephone.
Then I dropped the dime in it.
The man DID call me again, and for a short agonizing time, we saw each other. But in the end, it only served to drag out a painful reality that we were both born at the wrong times for the relationship to blossom.
It caused both of us great emotional torment, because truth be told, the man was not inclined to break the law or exploit the young. I think it was this very fact that made me quite frantic with need. He was the first man I had ever met that felt that way.
***Another VERY important fact that it took me time to understand. What I did to that man at age 16 was really unethical, and we both paid for it. It is NEVER OK to try and control someone else's behavior. Whenever I have done this, purposely or not, I was always bit in the ass for it. (Scar producing bites :D )
My point is...in retrospect, I could have avoided so much suffering had I left the issue alone. And I sure did not learn that lesson early.
When I owned my shop, woman after woman would come in an announce that they were a "Solitary". (A witch that does her practice alone).
This is a label that I always shrank from. None of us are "solitary" when we practice. If you were alone, it wouldn't work. And Magick can and will work for anyone who tries it.
One of the reasons I believe that you don't need more people to manifest is because you are not without spiritual and elemental help. When you bring other people to practice, you also bring their "Crew". So when you think you are inviting one person, you maybe be inviting 10 of her closest friends too, only they are unseen. As you can see, this can get pretty crowded and maybe a little more power than you need.
I continued to use unseen means to manifest when I was young and never studied any philosophies or schools of Magick. My small rituals and petitions were created by myself intuitively, and to be perfectly honest , the means I favored throughout my life.
I have not practiced any formal Magick in the last five years, for a number of reasons, but mostly because I have not needed to.
The thing that always irked the shit out of me was that people seemed to gravitate towards Magick for "Power". I always tried to steer these folks to books that spoke of ethics and responsibility. A few Satanists straggled in but never felt welcome. I have rode enough chaos in my life without trying to wrestle with their ideologies.
One young man came in to my shop with a couple of little Goths, looking for a book on curses. I tried to steer him to some other books that described the principals of magick, and even told him that he could reach his goals without curses. His response was "I'm not new to Magick." My response was, "You must be, or you wouldn't need to use someone else's spellwork for your own."
Needless to say, he left my store with his dreams of wreaking havoc temporarily dashed.
He left a half a can of soda behind, and when I chased him down to return it, I looked deeply in his eyes. I could tell he was trying to start "shit". He apologized profusely. (I know most of you won't understand my objection to him leaving something behind, it doesn't matter, he knew why). He was lucky, someone else might have had a little fun with his DNA.
It is always better to have people underestimate you.
Most of the people that were drawn to Magick, at least the ones that I met, belonged to three groups.
1. They wanted to manifest "stuff" that they didn't want to work for.
2. They wanted to avenge and protect themselves.
3.They wanted to find a way to connect with "life".
The third group was the one I was most inclined to lend my attention to. I will not pretend that I didn't make a good living on the first group, but I was always upfront with my opinion.
The second group only got my attention, to the degree that I would try and show them that they didn't need vengeance or "protection" to be happy and live unmolested. This group is why I kept most of my oils, black candles and black salt in my apothecary "back room". (You would not believe how many people tried to follow me in there).
I also never sold "Athames". ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athame ) Not because I object to them, I just thought carrying something that could be turned on me in my own store, seemed a foolhardy choice for stock.
A word on "early suffering". A painful history is very useful for managing other peoples' angry energies. It toughens you to external ill intentions. If someone throws a "whammy" at you, you might not even notice it. It might feel like a "flat tire", a noticeable aggravation, if you are tough, you fix the "tire". It hardly breaks your stride.
* I will concede that ritual high magick is a good choice for healing.
It is my opinion that all the tools we use for magic are just dressing to help us focus on our goal. Some of the things we do are to raise enough energy to release with our intentions. Sort of like "paying our way" instead of freeloading on our unseen sources. Chanting and dancing are a couple of ways this happens. Sex is also a way to raise an energetic payment, but might be reserved for something that needs a potent punch. Most of the energy raising I did was simply walking in a circle. But, as you can see I never really stretched further than I needed magickly.
I moved to a big city when I was a young girl, and sort of got sidetracked for a few years, with music and the social scene. I had the time of my life and really had little reason to "work" anything. But I sure was protected, this I think was not due to any efforts or intuitions. I think it simply wasn't my destiny to be harmed back then.
I lived in some pretty "economical" neighborhoods back then. One was the East Village, and when I returned home at night, (or in the morning) I would often walk by this shop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoSYGOe-L4I
I would say that 85% of the "Spell" trade that came my way was someone, usually a woman, wanting a love spell. I really felt sympathy for these women. How many times in my life did I feel like life wasn't worth living when some douchebag rejected me? I would help her approach the problem one of two ways, we would try and bring forth her most visible, sensual self. (This had mixed results). Or we would find a way to issue a universal invite for her next passion to appear. (This might not always be a mate, but sometimes a project that absorbed the client.
This is sort of getting preachy, and I don't want it to sound like I am an expert. Truth is, like everything else, I am trying to organize and articulate, just what it is I think. I expect to see a few contradictions.
Without a lot of feedback, I doubt I will bother to be coherent with this thread. Instead, since I am mostly entertaining myself and my own ideas, I will jump around as it pleases me and ruminate on whatever floats into my mind.
One of my friends brought it to my attention that this was Imbolc today, indeed once upon a time I might be celebrating this Holiday with some women I know.
Today my life is a little quieter.
I thought I would take a moment to speak again on my reluctance to group Magick. I have two reasons that I shy away from it mostly.
First, I rarely find myself in conditions so dire, that I need that kind of assistance. I am not saying it will never happen, just that it hasn't been my experience as of yet.
Secondly, I am reluctant to merge my energies with others, even the ones I trust implicitly. There have been a time or two when someone else's subconscious intentions found the way into the energies we raised and released. There are people who can "read" if a person is in a good and clean position for ritual, but I am not one of them.
I do not expect any (many ) to even read this thread but me. Since this site is in early stages, the thread is likely to get buried when things pick up. Until then, I hope my friends that DO see this, barge in and offer another perspective. And if you read this and don't belong to this site, skype me, pm me or email me, so that we can discuss this. I would like a fresh outlook.
I guess at the moment, I feel led to talk about WHEN MAGICK DOESN'T WORK.
A lot of people are surprised that spell work is quite often a lengthy and ongoing process. I have had spells actively working for two years or more to achieve a goal. This is a far cry from the old TV program "Bewitched", where "Samantha" waves her hands or wiggles her nose and manifests what she wants.
Maybe High Magick works faster...I don't know.
My point is, if Magick doesn't work you probably haven't devoted enough time or energy to the subject. This is why I always discouraged "Quick Spells" and wanna be pagans that were just interested in manifesting without effort or focus. (Another reason for failure, although even then it can sometimes work.)
There is another reason your Magick might not produce the effects you were trying to achieve. Many people include the intention that whatever is manifested, be for the "good of all."
Sometimes your intentions might not line up with this universal petition.
So as usual, this is out of sequence. But I was moved to pop this vid in to briefly address gathering energy for intentions. When I say briefly I mean I am going to post this video and maybe will talk some more to it later.
It is past the halfway mark when it starts to get interesting.
"I Love Lucy" has been a lifelong love of mine. I have been watching it since I was a small girl. The clip above is from a scene that sort of blew me awy back then, but I didn't understand why I was enchanted. Speaking of enchanting...notice how they break the flow and rhythm with dialogue...hmmm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZKVJHrlmkA
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